


Annihilation of Kaname Date

by lemonquails



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Impregnation, M/M, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:34:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23198665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonquails/pseuds/lemonquails
Summary: One year after the New Cyclops Serial Killings, Kaname Date is shown the full capabilities of the body which once belonged to Shizue Kuranushi.Girls will be girls, will be guys, will be boys that don't cry over toysThat they use to beat girls they despise by the morningThey always said that sex would change you.First Chapter: Post-Annihilation end misery-smutSecond Chapter: Non-smut comfort chapterThird Chapter: TBA, at least in part more non-smut comfort. Depending on how long it gets, smut comfort will either be in this chapter or a fourth chapter, thank you for your time.
Relationships: (The Date/Saito is the noncon), Date Kaname/Kagami Araya, Date Kaname/Sejima Saito
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	1. suicAI

**Author's Note:**

> I'd really appreciate any comments, even just 'comment kudos', validation for writing in a small fandom is tough to find...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Also sorry there were two whole paragraphs missing when I first posted this because of a broken html tag that I missed because the broken version still made sense)

As far as Kaname Date was concerned, it was a mistake for Saito to leave him alive after transferring him into the body of Shizue Kuranushi. After all, for as long as Date was alive, he would maintain the goal of making Saito pay for everything that he’d done. And everything that he would continue to do, he was sure. But the reckoning of the way that everything had turned out…

Pewter understood what had happened easily, when Date explained. It was thanks to this belief, and the way that Boss had already attempted to arrest Date (in the body of Saito Sejima) once. Working with the higher-ups, a story was spun that So Sejima had been responsible for everything, and had removed his own eye before being shot to try and shunt the blame away from himself. This wasn’t the truth, but the truth was too hard for the public to swallow, and it would be simpler to chase after a known culprit without complications of public opinion.

Date didn’t usually have the prudence to make these kinds of decisions, but… Saito had told the truth about memories. Even if you transfer an entire egg, a film of the original egg white remained on the inner edge of the shell. Just enough of Boss’s memories now belonged to Date that he could be as effective in her career as she had once been, and somewhat effective in her life. There wasn’t, frankly, much of it outside of her career in the first place. That made it easy for Date to assume her position and make her body a bit less uncomfortable for himself.

He cut his hair, and started binding his chest. Nobody asked any questions about this, but he noticed that the few people who didn’t know Shizue as Boss, began casually referring to him as ‘Shizuo’ instead. Mama was the first to do this, and it seemed to spread from there. He figured that it was convenient to have somebody like Mama around, nobody ever really needed to actually come out. Date had felt the full force of her ability in the past, too. Though he would have denied it if ever asked outright, Mama was quite clearly aware of Kaname Date’s bisexuality.

That too, was convenient to finding himself in this body now. At the very least, with the unique cocktail this transfer had instilled in him of dysmorphia and dysphoria, he had Boss’s same affection for boy bands. Not that he cared in the past, but may as well lean into the memories where he could. It was a strange life, least of all because everybody he cared about before was dead, and he couldn’t even mourn them publicly. Boss was dead in the body of So Sejima. Hitomi and Iris. Renju. Shoko. But nobody thought Boss was dead, and Boss had no reason to really mourn the rest herself, so Date couldn’t.

He still had Aiba, who had been transferred into a new form. This time, she was an earpiece, still able to attach to a direct line into his brain. He’d at first been perfectly willing to toss away an eye to get her back, but Pewter stepped in to avoid that. Really, in this turn of events, Pewter had been a godsend for him. And with each other, they could both do some of the mourning they publicly couldn’t, for Renju Okiura.

Aiba and Pewter. There was… Kagami too. As difficult as Date found it to remember that man’s name, they had _something_ happening between them at this point, though he couldn’t put a name to it. As for Mizuki… Date would have loved to tell her the truth, to at least hold onto her, but he knew he wouldn’t be any better to her now, with his single-minded determination to track down Saito Sejima. Mizuki received the same cover story that Date had been colluding with the culprit and ran off at the end of it all, smearing the name of ‘Kaname Date’ for the sake of simplicity. She then moved in with Mayumi Matsushita, who practically begged for some other child to dote on as if that could truly fill the void Ota left behind. Apparently, Date heard from Aiba… Mayumi often referred to Mizuki as if she _were_ Ota. It was far from a perfect situation, but it was the best that they could hope for in a cursed world like this one.

Date still believed, somewhere out there was a world where none of this had happened. Or it had happened differently, at least. A world where everyone wasn’t dead and Date got his own body back, or maybe carried on in Saito’s body, though the thought from this perspective made him shudder now. If he never knew, though, he would be fine in that body, he was sure.

And that was about where he’d been for the past year. He took on other cases in ABIS, assigned them to other Psyncers, did everything that he ought to as the boss. At the same time, he never stopped looking for Saito Sejima, but it became infinitely more difficult now that Saito was both returned to his own body and working without Rohan. There was no signature to look out for, because all along, Saito killed for the sake of killing. Any given murder, any Jane Doe, could be Saito’s work, and nobody would ever know. There was no reason for eyes to be removed now. All that Saito wanted was the rush of dopamine when he took a life… And Date assumed there was some pleasure to be found from the knowledge that he was racking his brain in frustration here that entire time, unable to ever know where Saito had gone to or had gotten up to.

That was about to change today, though. When the case file came in, Aiba pointed it out to him straight away. A body was found at the Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse- And it was missing its left eye. It was pretty clear that this was either Saito himself, or somebody imitating him. If it was Saito, then this was directly calling Date out. The corpse wasn’t anybody he knew this time- In fact, it was a Jane Doe. So the case wasn’t even necessarily the jurisdiction of ABIS at all, just the MPD in general. Even so, Date couldn’t ignore a summons like this. If he ignored it, then the next body _might_ be somebody he knew after all.

Aiba expressed some aprehension, but it was token resistance. She wanted to check this out just as badly as he did. CSI had checked over the scene once already, but Date made his way out to the warehouse after dark, before investigations would resume the next day. The body really was a Jane Doe, the eye removed postmortem on this one. He was about to start bouncing theories off Aiba, when she urged him. “Date! There’s somebody behind you-”

He turned around to look, and immediately had sedative gas filling his nostrils. He wasn’t yet completely out, when that was followed up with a shock from a handheld taser, and there was no way for him to resist dropping unconscious to the floor.

\--

“Date… I’m sorry,” Aiba’s voice filled his ears. “I didn’t notice quick enough, and my battery’s running low now. I think you’re going to be on your own here. Do me one favor?”

“Yeah?” He thought back to her without even taking stock of the situation yet.

“Don’t die here.” And then there was the soft ‘bzt’ noise of Aiba shutting down, and Date opened his eyes to take note of his actual condition. His arms were tied… Underneath him. Right, he was on his back, on a thin cot, and his arms were wrapped together with tape, and one set of handcuffs at his wrists for good measure, beneath the cot. It was such a strain to hold his arms this way, he thought one of his shoulders must be dislocated for sure right now. His legs were free, but kicking them was ineffective, and only proved to leave him short of breath.

Aiba often chided him against binding on the job specifically for situations like this, of course. She wondered as well why he didn’t just get surgery right away, but some part of him felt like making permanent changes to a body that wasn’t originally his… Was disrespectful, even when its original owner was dead. He wasn’t feeling all too respectful at a moment like this though, as he coughed like that would somehow improve airflow when it was his ribs which were hindering him.

“Oh good! You’re awake.” A voice that had once belonged to Date tore him from his thoughts. He turned his head to see him standing right there. White turtleneck, dress pants, and blazer. An insufferable look for an insufferable man. “Hooonestly… You had to know that was a trap. Why would you come here yourself? I was just expecting to off that inspector you’re so fond of. What was his name, Kagura?”

“It’s… Kagami.” Date felt the need to correct him, for some reason. But whatever he would have said at that moment, the venom in his voice was tangible.

“That’s not the point!” Saito threw his arms up. “This is greater than my wildest dreams, having you here like this… Though I see you haven’t improved at all with that bad habit of yours. Failing to use the bodies you inhabit to their full potential. It began all the way back with _Rohan_ , then of course, with my body. And now… I would’ve thought a tits guy like you would want those on full display. Let me help you out.”

Saito approached from the side. Even if Date had the breath to kick at him more, he couldn’t from this angle- Saito pulled a box cutter from his pocket and reached over, snatching the hem of each layer Date was wearing all at once. He ran the blade from the hem up to the collar of the whole thing, the tip of it drawing blood against Date’s skin. With the fabric sliced such, he tore the clothing aside, exposing Date’s full chest with the newly-acquired line of blood running from his sternum to his stomach.

“What are you…” Date was too stunned to do anything but ask the obvious question. “What are you doing, Sejima?”

“Huh? Isn’t it kind of obvious? I thought you’d spent enough time in this body that you’d understand.” Saito stood up straight again and dropped the box cutter to the floor in the same moment as his other hand reached into his own waistband. “This body gets turned on _very_ easily. It’s not really comparable to watching a life end, for me, but sexual release does produce _some_ dopamine no matter what body you’re in.”

Date blinked and, unwilling to confront the reality he found himself in, instead thought about what Saito said. He had assumed that the decrease in his past tendency to find something to be a horndog about even in the bleakest times was reduced by the crushing seriousness of Hitomi’s sudden murder, or maybe just by being now in a ‘female’ body that lacked a dick to think with the way he used to. But was it really, like Saito said, just a factor of _that_ body to be so horny all the time?

The other factor of that body which he was confronted with by its hitting him directly in the face was the _size_ of the dick that, for six years, he had thought with. Being hit in the face by something that he had memories of being his own cock was enough that he had to acknowledge this reality now. “Hey! What the… Don’t you just want to kill me? Fuck off! I’m not gonna suck your dick!”

“I had no intentions of having you suck it. And frankly, no intentions of leaving you alive… For _too_ much longer.” Saito climbed up onto the cot, both hands pressing most of his weight against Date’s stomach in that motion. It was almost as bad as being punched in the gut, so he couldn’t help but grunt in pain. “You know who I killed first, right?”

“It was…” Date thought back. Had Saito mentioned that? It didn’t matter if he had, Date knew the answer. “Manaka Iwai. Your father’s mistress, right after she gave birth to Iris…”

“Very _good_ , Date!” Saito clapped his hands sarcastically before returning them to Date’s body, this time his waist. His legs were pinned at the thighs now by Saito’s weight, and he swiftly undid the buttons on Date’s pants to slide them towards his ankles, further keeping him from attempting to fight back the only way he might have been able to. “Men’s boxer-briefs even. Good grief, Date, you have no sense of impersonation.”

“Too bad that’s not enough of a turn-off for you, is it?” Date questioned, gritting his teeth. “You said yourself, killing is a better release for you. So what are you doing here, really?”

“My plan?” Saito slid down the criticized undergarment as well now, and without so much as touching with his hand first, grasped Date by the hips and thrust into him all at once. His breath caught in his throat and he found his head tilting back, staring now up at the hook hanging from the ceiling directly above them. “ _Nothing_ compares, Date, to the feeling of killing a woman who has just given birth!”

“T-Too bad for you, I’m not-” Date tried to protest, but found he couldn’t get the words out when Saito drew back, only to pull into him again with extra pressure to his hips from his thumbs. Violent, purposeful thrusts left his ears ringing and his lungs unable to take hold near enough to make even a paltry rebuttal.

“I have no intention of keeping you here the whole time!” Saito hissed out, moving one hand to reach up and shove his thumb into Date’s mouth instead, leaning over his face so that the wild look was all he could see. “If you get an _abortion_ , I might just have to go after somebody else! Mizuki’s had her first period. That’s a fact I got from _your_ memories left behind in my body. So if I were you, I’d take the nine months of humiliation myself, rather than put her through more of the same!”

“And if I just…” Date managed a few words even past Saito’s finger, though it left him choking on his own saliva. “Kill myself?”

“I think if you were going to do that…” Saito’s eyes lidded and his grin turned to more of a knowing smirk, looking straight down at Date. “You already would have. You can’t let yourself die while I’m still alive. And you wouldn’t do that to Mizuki either. Even if you were too dead to see her go aphonic all over again, you wouldn’t die and leave that to happen! You’ve got too much of that _disgusting_ integrity!”

“Y-you’re… Augh!” Date exclaimed in anguish and squeezed his eyes shut as Saito hilted inside of him, cock pulsing at it released and-

“Yes, Kaname Date! Get pregnant! I _will_ inseminate you! You’re barely still fertile, but I’m pretty potent...” Sped up. He actually sped up in his movements as if tamping his seed deeper into Date’s womb, continuing to move even as he came. There was no relenting, no break or even momentary reduction to Saito’s erection as he just kept going, pressing his cum ever more inside. As far as he could feel, Saito wasn’t letting even a drop escape from inside of him. “And you know what I’ll do next? I’ll find you. I’ll find you and your daughter and I will _Psync_ your consciousness into hers. I’ll kill this body of yours, and I’ll repeat it all over again! Kaname Date, your misery will become my everlasting joy!”

It didn’t take much for Saito to cum again, arching his back and _cackling_ as he released inside once more, the hand by Date’s mouth now pressing against his windpipe. He struggled to breathe past it, though he wasn’t even sure why he was trying. Right, it must be… As Saito said… For Mizuki’s sake. He couldn’t just die, as much as right now, every part of him screamed that he _wanted_ to.

“Heh… Funny thing isn’t it, Date?” Saito asked, tilting his head back downwards. This time at least he had stopped moving, though he didn’t pull out. “I’ve been inside this body here… In two _different_ ways now. It’s exhilarating, really. Almost makes me wish I didn’t kill Iris Sagan straight away. Dad’s memories would have appreciated that, she looks so much like her mother. Oh, or Shoko Nadami. I could have fucked _her_ in the body of her ex-husband. Isn’t that interesting, Date? Isn’t it crazy what sort of things Psync can allow us to do? I mean, look at you. Without Psync, you never would have known how it feels to be impregnated. How _does_ it feel, Kaname Date?” He lifted his hand from Date’s throat. “Go on. Tell me.”

“Like I really would rather be dead right now,” Date answered, “But you’ve taken that off the table for me.”

“Ah, Date. Ever the optimist, aren’t you?” Saito lifted both hands, then placed them on the cot on either side of Date’s head and began to grind slowly into him again. “Really, you have no reason to believe I _won’t_ go after Mizuki anyway. But you know I _will_ if you disobey. And, of course. If I did go after her anyway, I’d lose what I have on you. Maybe I’ll just use her in the meantime while you’re busy growing up again. Everybody wins.”

“That sounds… Exclusively like you win, you bastard.” Date curled his lip back and glared up at Saito. At this speed, now, he could at least manage to speak through Saito’s actions. Rather than potent hurt, this was just discomfort, at least on the strictly physical side of things.

“You never know?” Saito snuck one sharp thrust in there, breaking up the slow speed. “Mizuki’s a rough and tumble girl, isn’t she? Maybe she’ll _like_ the way I make love. Maybe she’ll be turned on, being raped by a man who almost became a father figure to her once upon a time! At least, a man who looks like him… After what I saw in Renju’s head before I killed him, I fully expect that girl to have daddy issues.”

“Don’t you-” Another suddenly harsh movement cut Date off, and he bit down on his tongue in surprise.

“Calling you a pedo all the time, half makes me think she was _expecting_ to wake up with you inside her one of these days.” Saito leaned down close, his breath right up against the ear that Aiba was in. “Maybe that’s how I’ll do it. Mayumi Matsushita, that’s who she lives with now, right? By now she’s forgotten her grudge against you, I’m sure. She’d let me right into the room where Mizuki sleeps. Yes… How does that sound, Date? This body, pumping into your little girl just the way I’m doing right… Now… Hah.”

Saito’s own fantasy was enough for him to climax yet again, still just as much thick semen pouring out as the first time. Date clenched his teeth together and focused on that feeling instead, otherwise he surely would have thrown up. His stomach was turning from all of it combined- The way that Saito was talking about Mizuki, the dick inside of him and all of the hot, slimy cum. Saito’s weight on top of him in general, his breath so close to Aiba who _thank god_ was powered off and not experiencing this violation the same as Date-

Then there was a sudden sharp noise. It rang in Date’s ears, and the weight on top of him increased, and seeping under his neck he felt a warm, thinner liquid than the one that currently filled his abdomen. He blinked, and tried to look, but he couldn’t see past Saito. He spoke aloud unbidden. “W…. Was that a gunshot?”

“Of course it’s a _gunshot_ , what else would it be?” A familiar voice echoed in the warehouse.

“K-Kagami!?” Date questioned.

“Hey, you remembered my name…? This guy really must have messed you up…” Kagami sounded very concerned as he approached the cot and grabbed Saito’s body by the shoulders, throwing it off. “S-Sorry to be seeing this, Date. Let me just. Uh.”

Kagami crouched down and, with a pair of bolt cutters produced from some pouch on his uniform, cracked the chain between the cuffs and sliced through the duct tape holding Date’s arms in place. Once those were freed, Date immediately sat up and re-dressed himself as much as he physically could. Zipping his jacket helped. Then, he realized. “Kagami, did you just… Call me Date?”

“Uhh, well. I mean. That guy isn’t Kaname Date, right?” Kagami gestured to the corpse. “I think I know you well enough to figure out who you really are at this point. Uh… And, well. Pewter explained to me about the Psync machine recently. Knowing that, it isn’t too hard to figure out, that… Well… It is you, right?”

Date looked away and sighed. “Yeah. I’m… Kaname Date. Psynced by Saito Sejima into the body of Shizue Kuranushi. It’s been me in this body for the past year, and Saito Sejima in… That body.”

“Are you okay?” Kagami asked.

“No.” Date shook his head. “I’m not.”

“Is there… Anything I can do?”

“I don’t know. How did you know to come here?”

“Aiba contacted me,” Kagami said, “Uh. Pewter also explained about her.”

“...Why was he explaining these things to you, anyway?”

“He said that you were going to hire me on as a Psyncer soon anyway, so I should get up to speed. Was that… Not true? I’ve been doing practice runs and I’m pretty good at it, I mean-”

“I wasn’t planning on that. But if it’s true then…” Date brought his hands up to his face, and his voice cracked a bit. “Maybe you can help me a little bit more, after all. Araya. Will you Psync with me?”

“...Right, because Psyncs can help to heal uh. Psychological wounds…” Kagami trailed off, then sounded much more sure of himself when he spoke again. “Anything I can do to help you, Kaname. I want to do it.”

“Thank you.” Date went to climb off the cot, but fell over as soon as he put any weight on his legs. He was trying too hard to function as normal after what had just happened to him. Kagami, without a word, crouched down and gently lifted him up. He turned and pressed his face into Kagami’s chest as they left the warehouse. “I also want to. See Mizuki. And recharge Aiba, so I can thank her…”

“Let’s just get back to ABIS first, okay?” Kagami whispered, and carried Date away from that place.


	2. Psyncin' In The STaiN

Kagami walked over towards Date’s car- He had come in a police vehicle, himself. The others had arrived shortly after him, Date noted the cars around the warehouse. So Kagami would have been driving even faster, to be the first one here… In a way, that was sweet, wasn’t it? Kagami set him down in the backseat of his car. He reached up and detached the Aiba earpiece, handing it over so she could charge in the steering wheel, then lay down across the seats on his side. All of this occurred without a single word passing between them. Having given Kagami both Aiba and his car keys, Date sighed and shut his eyes.

Kagami got into the front seat and set Aiba into the charger, at which point she immediately broke the silence at a frantic tone, “Araya Kagami! Please tell me what happened when you arrived at the warehouse!”

“I’m not really sure that’s my place to say, Aiba,” Kagami said, “But Date _is_ alive.”

“Date as in…” Her voice quivered.

“It’s me, Aiba,” Date said, “Not Sejima. Though, really, you didn’t think to clarify for Kizuna that’s who I am when you sent him after me?”

“K-Kizuna, huh?” Kagami asked, “Well, if you’re mixing up my name again, then you must be doing a _bit_ better. That’s a kind of cute one, you know.”

“I’m well aware,” Date said, “It’s kind of cute that you rushed here to help me before the rest of the police force. So I guess that makes us even.”

“Jeeze, get a room,” Aiba teased, at first. Then her tone shifted to a more serious one. “What, Date, are we not joking as usual?”

“It might be best if you don’t,” Kagami said, “For the time being.”

“...Kagami,” Aiba said, “Are you confident enough in your driving abilities to remove me from the charger and pass me back to Date? I have enough charge for now, to at least line up. And Date, don’t try not to do this. I _deserve_ to know what really happened in there.”

Kagami took a deep breath, then pulled Aiba from her charge port and passed her back towards Date who, for his part, took the earpiece straight away. He fastened her into his ear and, while he was sat up anyway, put on a seatbelt, though he had to lean back and press his face against the window. He didn’t have it in him to remain upright. Beat.

“D-Date…” Aiba spoke directly into his ear now. “These readings I’m getting from your body, I…”

“Don’t get too settled,” Date thought back to her, “You don’t want to know what’s in my subconscious right now.”

“I… Can imagine that I don’t. I’ll admit to that. But… If you hadn’t been tased back there, at least I could have administered something for the pain, or. I could have done something.”

“The sedative ABIS uses is what he used, it’s strong enough that the stun was completely unnecessary. So I imagine that he had exactly that in mind. He wanted me to suffer. But, if that’s the case, he didn’t account for something. It was a small comfort that you didn’t need to experience that along with me.”

“Date, I am an AI. I cannot be traumatized. It would have been better if I were there-”

“You couldn’t have done anything to help me escape, if that’s what you’re thinking. You don’t have to pull that AI card with me. Even if you cut off most of your connection so you wouldn’t feel what I was feeling, you’d still be witnessing something terrible. Unless you’re saying that it would have no emotional effect on you to watch me get raped.”

“That’s a dirty trick, Date. Of course it would have an emotional effect on me.” Aiba’s voice was measured and tired. “It’s having an emotional effect on me right now. The fact I wasn’t able to be there for you is just another piece of it. And if I could just access your memories to see the details, maybe I would know what to say, to help _your_ emotions. But…”

“I’m not going to let you into my head enough for that. You know what happened in broad strokes, that’s all you really need. It isn’t just for your sake, Aiba. I don’t want you to see me like that. It’s bad enough you’re seeing me like this. Wasn’t I supposed to be the cool one?”

“The only part of this situation that is embarrassing for you is that you thought you were ever cool.” Aiba was teasing him again, but her tone remained dead serious. “We’re both at fault for going to the warehouse without backup in the first place. I knew it could be a call from Sejima, but I couldn’t have imagined that he would actually be right there when we arrived.”

“Aiba… I’m going to send you back up front now.” Date removed her from his ear and passed her forward. Kagami frowned, and set Aiba back in the wheel.

“We’re going back to ABIS for now,” Kagami told Aiba, then glanced at Date in the rearview before lowering his voice so only she could hear. “Obviously I couldn’t hear what you two were talking about, but I wouldn’t worry too much right now. It’s still fresh, and, I don’t know if anything can make him feel better.”

“...I know,” Aiba said, “But that doesn’t mean I have to be okay with it.”

-

Upon arriving back at ABIS, Date was able to manage walking again to go inside himself, which again, represented a level of improvement. Or, did it, really? Aiba wasn’t so sure. She knew him well enough to say that, perhaps, a visible improvement meant invisible degradation. Kaname Date, her investigative partner, had an unshakeable degree of pride. She saw it often. He continued working hard, cracking jokes, everything he’d normally do with barely a second to let himself think about the truth of a situation.

She saw it a year ago especially. Date powered through the deaths of people close to him, or who he’d grown to care about in short order, continuing to investigate until the moment that it all came crashing down. When Saito went back on his word and killed Hitomi, and Date couldonlylet everything that had happened so far spring break and knock him to pieces. He picked those up, of course, eventually. Much more slowly and carefully than he seemed to bounce from the incidents which led him there.

So from Aiba’s perspective… If Date was bouncing back even to this low extent, after what had just happened. It would hardly take much more to push him to the brink. He requested that somebody Psync with him out of unwillingness to talk it out with anyone in person, but a Psync that broke his mental locks the wrong way, or failed to break them at all, would no doubt leave him far worse off than he’d began. Her own opinion was that some _goddamn therapy_ would do Kaname Date a world of good, but then again. So many of the issues he grappled with were confidential.

Even the relationship with his current body was one that couldn’t be talked out nearly as much as it ought to be. Dysphoria wasn’t an uncommon problem for therapists to address, necessarily. Dysmorphia, depending on the root, a bit more rare; Relating to eating disorders, or directly to trauma, sure. But this was a different matter entirely. He’d experienced a portion of adult life just fine, learned he had been in a body which didn’t actually belong to him, then was dropped into another that didn’t just belong to somebody other than himself, but wasn’t even of his gender. Aiba sincerely doubted there were more than a few cases out there of somebody legitimately _suddenly_ acquiring gender dysphoria- Suddenly realizing, sure, but going from a suited body to one which wasn’t… 

And even if there were some counselor out there who could offer any assistance with this kind of thing, Date wouldn’t be able to speak openly about the origin of his issues, and so, real help could never be dispensed to him. Aiba knew this, but still… She understood Date better than anyone else in this world could ever hope to. One wrong move, and he’d explode all over again. This time, would he recover? He _was_ tough, but there was a lot here, between what he refused to address the first time around and what had just happened.

And with Saito having just been killed.

Strange as it was to say, Aiba almost thought that was a downside, in some way. Sure, Date would never need to see him again, but there were other factors to consider. What had allowed him to carry on before was a single-minded determination to bring Saito to justice. The fact it wasn’t Date who killed him, the fact that there was no enemy to set Date’s sights ahead now. The fact that some part of him, despite everything, had still wondered if he might get that body back… And ever more that even Aiba was unable to access or comprehend in his psyche.

The idea behind Psyncing was to find some resolution for this. It was almost selfish of Date, Aiba felt, to request that. Whether he thought about it or not. He might not have thought, in that moment of vulnerability. But it too was that vulnerability which made the request impossible to refuse. Psyncing to remedy his recently acquired trauma rather than facing it himself. Kagami had agreed, but…

Well, that was why Aiba was currently in a room with him, while Date was elsewhere. Probably asking Pewter to get the Psync set up… “Kagami,” Aiba spoke plainly, “I need you to put me in your ear when you Psync with Date.”

“I can do that,” Kagami said, “But why, exactly?”

“I’ll connect to your brain and join you in the Psync. Usually when Date Psyncs with somebody, I act as… I guess you’d call it an avatar. He tells me what to do, and I do it. Two brains are better than one, after all! And it’s the only time I get to really stretch my legs.” Aiba explained, “And as for this time. Well, I’ve been in way more Psyncs than you have. I don’t mean to offend you, but you have no field experience yet. I can’t just put my partner’s well-being in your hands alone.”

“I-I mean…” Kagami said, glancing away. “I don’t even know if I should, at all. Like I said, I’ve only practiced a few times. I told him that I would do it… Because it seemed like, it’s the only thing he thinks will help. But maybe I should have just driven to the hospital instead.”

“It’s true that if we do something wrong in his somnium, it could leave him worse off,” Aiba admitted, “But if you had driven him to the hospital instead of to ABIS, it’s possible that he would not have ever spoken a word to you of this incident again. And any thoughts of becoming a career Psyncer yourself would be out the window. Despite his own _tendency_ to drop people off at other places than he stated, he surely wouldn’t appreciate having it turned around on him.”

“I mean. If he’d rather pretend like none of this happened at all, I’d understand,” Kagami said, “I’m sorry that I had to see him that way. I said as much immediately. So if there were something I should have done, that would have been better for his well-being… Then it would be fine if he didn’t speak to me about this incident again.”

“You do realize that wouldn’t just be pretending this with Sejima never happened, right?” Aiba said, “The fact that you even realized he’s Kaname Date would be brushed under the rug. Even if that doesn’t mean anything to you, which I believe it does… Date’s testimony will probably be required to clear you of any accusations of using excessive force. You did make the right decision here. Refusing to Psync with him would likely result only in bad things for you.”

“But what about Date?” Kagami asked, “I’ve seen excessive force investigations before. It might set my career back, but I wouldn’t lose my job completely or anything! Are you really… Did I really do the right thing here?”

“You’re the only person who did. Date and I both failed to think ahead when we went to investigate the warehouse. If I had to guess… When we were investigating the New Cyclops Serial Killings, we never found ourselves in danger when we visited confirmed crime scenes. The culprit was already long gone. So we didn’t think twice this time, and…”

“Hey now! Aiba…” Kagami turned her over in his hand a bit. “Are you blaming yourself now? I swear, the both of you. It isn’t like any one person, or… Accessibility device, can actually make a huge difference in a dangerous situation.”

“In my experience, Date and I have been able to make the _only_ difference in a great number of dangerous situations. At ABIS, it’s more common to be the hero than not,” Aiba said, “Well, I guess that’s why they want you on board. You’re the hero this time.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Kagami said, “If I arrived at the same time as you both, I bet I’d have been killed! My experience is in forensics, I usually see more danger in my hobbies than in my job. The only reason I was able to make the shot is because you told me ahead of time that I might need to shoot somebody, and… Well…”

“Sejima was distracted,” Aiba finished the sentence for him. Both of them went silent for a bit, then she spoke up again, “I don’t think that a Psync is the best thing for Date. Going to the hospital, getting checked out, getting counseling. That would be the correct course of action given his current state. However… things are more complicated for him than any given counselor can tackle. And for as long as he thinks only a Psync could help him, then he won’t give anything else a chance. That’s why I’m going in with you. To make sure that your inexperience doesn’t make things worse.”

“You called me a hero, then go right back to assuming I’m incompetent?” Kagami asked.

“Yes! You can be an incompetent hero. I can’t help but feel like I’ve heard about one of those before now… Well. We should go out there, I’m sure that Pewter has the Psync machine prepared by now. For… You know. You’ve been focused this entire time on ‘What will help Date’. But Psyncs can be pretty awful even when the trauma _isn’t_ so fresh. Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“I’m going to be completely honest with you.” Kagami lifted Aiba to his ear and fastened her in. “I don’t think anything I’d see in a Psync would actually be worse than what you sent me to see in the warehouse there…”

“I-” Aiba started.

“No.” Kagami cut her off. “I’m not telling you to apologize. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened if you didn’t send me there… I’d rather see something awful and put a stop to it. That’s why I got involved in the MPD to begin with. I have to ask, though. Did Pewter tell you that he’d been letting me in on these things?”

“Not in the least,” Aiba said. Kagami felt a small prick in his ear as she became interfaced properly with him. “This will only work temporarily, since I am attuned to Date, but it’s enough to join you in the Psync. Anyway. I had no idea how much of the truth you knew. I called you for help because, after me… You’re actually the person that Kaname Date trusts the most.”

“Me? That’s… Ridiculous. I mean, under normal circumstances he can’t even remember my name. And there’s plenty of people he’s known a lot longer, we only met during that investigation last year. Speaking of which, I… Still would like to be let in on the full story. All I’ve had explained to me is the Psync machine, and your existence. Not the whole of what really happened.”

“Certainly. We’ll catch you up to speed later.” Aiba paused, and chuckled a bit. “Oh, he can remember it alright. Maybe the first few times, it did slip his mind… But eventually, he just thought it was cute how you’d go along with whatever he called you. For your own part, you wouldn’t have really relented like that with anybody else. _Would_ you… Kaneki?”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Atsuko.”

“I can see why you and Date get along so well. You both retain a similar sense of humor even under circumstances like these…”

“Well, it comes with the job. Circumstances like these are… Usually not so close to home, but they’re commonplace?” Kagami admitted, “A sense of humor is the only true tool an officer of justice has, you know. Even if it might, uh. Be prudent to turn it off right now.”

“I too am an officer of justice, so it makes me feel right at home,” Aiba assured him, “You don’t often work with the public though, do you…? In forensics. That may be why you have trouble turning off the comedy in the face of misery.”

“Does Date do better at being serious with the public when he needs to?” Kagami wondered.

“Now that I think about it,” Aiba deadpanned, “He certainly doesn’t. Admittedly, we can communicate silently, so a lot of it isn’t _heard_ by people other than me. He does say the most inopportune things aloud from time to time. And… Oh, I see what you’re doing here. You’re just trying to get endearing information about him out of me.”

“Why would I do that right _now_?” Kagami questioned.

“Your body temperature is rising. I see I’ve embarrassed you. Let’s see if I can do it further… Yes, the situation is not ideal. But Date seemed to consider flirting with you an important enough part to ‘being normal’ that he made an attempt so soon after he was recovered. It would be the sort of foolishness which leads to an entire additional _year_ of mutual pining, for you to not at least acknowledge that.”

“Thanks for the advice?” Kagami said, “I’ll, uh. Keep that in mind once things settle down. They will settle down… Right?”

“At ABIS? No way!” Aiba broke to laugh at herself very briefly, before becoming dead serious again. “I don’t know. Generally speaking, there will always be dangerous cases. Speaking of Date specifically. Even I, the person who understands him most, can’t say what will occur next. Maybe the Psync will have a real positive effect. Maybe we, as his support system, will make the difference in other ways. But nothing even a little bit like this has happened to him before, I can’t make any meaningful predictions. Maybe it won’t be okay. Ever.”

“That’s not reassuring.”

“Let’s get this Psync over with already. Then I’ll at least have _some_ idea of what to expect.”

-

“This is… Different from Date’s usual dream.” Aiba observed immediately, looking around after appearing in the somnium. She hadn’t appeared in her typical fashion of ‘doing whatever weird shit she could think of’, standing perfectly still instead to survey the scene the moment she arrived. When she had looked into Date’s subconscious before, it had always reflected the Sagan residence, or on occasion, his own. This was completely different, and not _quite_ anything from reality.

“It’s the Psync Room… Sort of,” Kagami’s voice echoed, “It’s not quite right.”

“No, it’s not.” The image before them was of the Psync Room… Multiple times over. Psync machines that stretched out as far as the eye could see, in one direction. Behind Aiba was nothing but a wall, the usual window into the control room nowhere to be seen. “There’s so many of them… Okay. We have six minutes of action to do something worthwhile here. Somnium Scan, Activate.”

The Psync Machine that was visible directly in front of Aiba: Mental Lock #1  
The center ring of four Psync Machines further down the line: Mental Lock #2  
A chair on either side of a Psync Machine’s ring even further in: Mental Lock #3  
A Psync Machine with… Cots instead of Psync Chairs: Mental Lock #4  
And Aiba couldn’t see yet from here, what Mental Lock #5 really was. But it certainly existed.  
As did Mental Lock #6.

First Objective: Help Mizuki.

Aiba approached the Psync Machine which constituted Date’s first mental lock, with the objective in mind. Help Mizuki. So that was the first lock at current… And it sounded very familiar. The image of Mizuki sat in a Psync Chair, unmoving, but eyes open, and there was a photograph torn up at her feet. “I’ve done this before, Kagami. To help Mizuki get over her aphonia, and gather details about Shoko Nadami’s body discovery. Reassembling the photograph was what helped her then…”

“In that case,” Kagami said, “You should probably do the same thing again here… With the Psync Machines we’re being shown, in some way, it’s got to be related to the past Psyncs you and Date did. Right?”

“Mm, that’s correct. In somnium, I can’t actually commit to actions without directions from you, though. So we do need to work together.” Aiba crouched down and, right there at Mizuki’s feet, rearranged the image. It was from… Before. “While Mizuki and Date still lived together… This is a ‘selfie’ taken by Mizuki on a particularly pleasant occasion. The company cover-dinner was at a sushi buffet, and Mizuki managed to place a large chunk of eel directly on Date’s face.”

“Uh…” The Mizuki sat in the chair suddenly spoke, causing Aiba to jump. “Date, what are you _doing_? If you don’t back off, I’m seriously going to throw my dinner at you! And you know how much I like this stuff, so I’m serious!”

“Mizuki has never had a reason to say that,” Aiba spoke frenetically, “Which is to say, we may have made a mistake-”

“Fix the photo,” Kagami said, catching Aiba out of her momentary panic. “Calm down. I think we need to fix the photo…”

“Fix it?” Aiba asked, “Isn’t that what we just did?”

“You put it back together, but it’s still incorrect,” Kagami said, “After all. If that photo was taken again today, it would be a bad thing… You have to make it something good again. Uh. I think.”

“You have a point,” Aiba said, “Visually, this image… Would at this point imply that Saito Sejima was, for some reason, being pelted with Unagi by Mizuki. And what she said just now ties into that possibility. So to fix it, let me just…” She poked at the photo with the tip of her finger. “There. With my ‘blood’ I have adjusted the image to be that of Kaname Date as he currently appears.”

“No matter how many times you change your stupid face, Date, I’m still going to throw food at it as often as I can. It’s my divine right!” Mizuki in the chair grinned and pointed a finger forward. “You better hope you never let tomatoes sit in the fridge long enough to go rotten, or you’re in for a real surprise! I’m gonna boo you off the stage, old man!”

With that, Mizuki, and this entire Psync Machine, shattered and disappeared, giving way to the image of a padlock coming undone. So that was the first of the Mental Locks. Aiba heaved a sigh of relief, there was still plenty of time. “Good thinking, Kagami. Perhaps I underestimated you… Even if you’re not experienced at Psyncing, you must be good with details.”

“Of course I am. Missing the smallest detail could be the difference between truth and failure when you’re working a crime scene! Even the tiniest find can be a huge rush, the kind you only get if you’re on the roof of a train and it suddenly goes into a tunnel,” Kagami said, “So the next thing we need to do is…”

Second Objective: The Ones I Couldn’t Help

“Those other… Huh.” As Aiba approached the remaining Psync Machines in the hallway, she found that she couldn’t progress any further. “I can’t walk over there.”

“Try… Um… Tapping the space where you’re being blocked, with your finger,” Kagami offered.

“The invisible wall? Okay.” Aiba reached out and poked it with the same finger she’d used to alter the photograph. As soon as she made direct contact with it… Another Aiba appeared, their fingers connected. She pulled her hand back off, and the other Aiba did the same. “It’s something like… A mirror, after all?”

“I’ve actually seen something like this before!” Kagami exclaimed, “Aiba, I think whatever we want to do with the other machines, we have to pantomime around this one so the other Aibas do it. There’s four of them right now, for the next lock…”

“Yes, I see that. They are all mirroring me,” Aiba said. She also saw a few other things. In front of the first machine, a merry-go-round horse. Then, an oil drum. A camera on a tripod. A stuffed polar bear, before the most distant one. In order, these were…

“All of those items in front of the machines relate to the New Cyclops case,” Kagami said, “Well, except for the stuffed bear. That seems more like a representation of the actual item… Other than that, I put evidence tags on everything represented here.”

“It certainly does help, that being the case you and Date met during.” Aiba lifted a hand to her chin. “You’re up to speed on particular aspects of the case that I would otherwise need to inform you of personally. I’m not sure what to do with these iterms, though.”

“Well, they’re all in the same spot. And all the other Aibas mirror you exactly,” Kagami said, “We have that much to go on! So… Something you can get the other Aibas to do all at once, to the items, right? What’s an _action_ that occured in each of these murders?”

“The removal of… No, that won’t do,” Aiba said, “Ota’s eye was left intact, and there is no eye to be removed from an Oil Drum. So what actually... Happened at some point during each murder…”

“Um. Maybe try having the mirror Aibas lift the items up and into the ring of the Psync Machine,” Kagami offered, “Didn’t every case involve a body being lifted somehow…?”

“I can give it a shot… Iris was only lifted _up_ while she was still alive, but that might count anyway.” Aiba shrugged, then positioned herself so the mirror-Aibas were facing their respective items. Then, she reached out and lifted, before pivoting to place the items inside the rings. The mirror Aibas shattered first. The horse became the image of Shoko’s body tied _to_ a horse, then disappeared. The oil drum to Renju. Camera to Iris. Polar bear to Ota. Each, in turn, dissipating away, before the second lock slid open.

Third Objective: Set her free.  
Third Objective: Set him free.  
Third Objective: ???

Aiba furrowed her brow. While the ‘objective’ lines weren’t actually something she could see, of course, she was attuned enough to somniums to know that at this point, they had a choice to make. She took a few steps toward the third lock, and found that the invisible wall was gone alone with all of the Mirror Aibas. It was a small time-sink that she didn’t need, to run down to what amounted to the sixth Psync Machine in this somnium, but she did it anyway. Once she was there, she sighed. “You’re kind of a natural, Inspector Kagami. So what now?”

“Sit down in…” Kagami thought for a minute. “Sit in the chair that’s closer to you right now. That’s the way the interrogation rooms are laid out with the MPD.”

“Correct.” Aiba nodded, and took the seat that Kagami told her to. As soon as she was sitting, several things appeared. In the chair across from her was… What appeared to be Shizue Kuranushi. As that body had appeared before it was in Date’s possession, though she couldn’t tell at a glance if this was meant to be Boss in actuality, or if it were echoing reality and now showing the version of Boss which had been commandeered by Saito. She imagined that the somnium would progress differently depending on what she believed.

On the table between them, a few things appeared as well. There was a plaster cast with three signatures on it. An Evolver pistol. A set of handcuffs. And… Aiba, when she was still an eye. Four options. Kagami asked, “Aiba, what do you think?”

“I think…” Aiba surveyed the items one more time. “We need to decide who’s occupying this body, and make choices accordingly. Whether it’s Sejima or Boss.”

“What if it’s Date?” Kagami asked.

“Huh?”

“Well, three different people have had that body, right? Its original owner, Boss. Saito Sejima. And Kaname Date. I might not know the whole story of how he ended up there, but that chain makes sense to me.”

“So we need to make a choice… Who _is_ this person before us, and that will inform the actions we should take. Given that this is somnium, whichever assumption we make will probably turn out to be true in the context of the dream. It’s more a matter of what will be more helpful, than what we can decide to do.”

“In that case, we should…” Kagami went silent for a minute, before he spoke up again. “Aiba, please pick up the evolver and shoot the figure in the right arm.”

“I suppose I can do that.” Aiba lifted the pistol and took aim. “It will not let me access the chamber, so I can’t change the bullet type. I don’t know what will happen.”

“Take the shot,” Kagami confirmed. Aiba steadied her aim and pulled the trigger. From the evolver, an explosive round took flight, and found its mark. When it hit the figure’s arm, an explosion did occur, but it seemed contained by the edge of the table, spreading only over the arm and leg of the person in front of them. “I thought so.”

“That imitates the shot I had Date make when Sejima, in Boss’s body, was trying to arrest him. So have you decided whose body this is?” Aiba asked.

“Well, now that you’ve taken that shot, it’s in the same state it was in when it became ‘Date’s body’, right? I remember that injury occurred. I signed the cast.” When Kagami said that, Aiba looked down at the plaster cast here. Indeed, three signatures. Pewter, Kakami, and Mizuki. She insisted on signing it when Date had taken her to stay with Mayumi Matsushita; It wasn’t like Boss was an outright stranger to her, and no kid passed up the chance to sign a cast.

“...You spelled your name in hiragana?” Aiba asked.

“Well, I figured it might be easier to remember that way,” Kagami said.

“Maybe so, but you left off the dakuten of your second syllable. You actually wrote your _own_ name incorrectly on Date’s cast.”

“Wait, are you kidding me?? Was it like that in reality, or is it just that way in Date’s somnium?”

“I have a perfect memory. So I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that you did misspell your name when you signed this plaster cast. It’s a wonder Date ever learned your real name at all, with this much lack of effort to encourage him to do so on your part.”

“Great…” Kagami sighed. “Moving on, though. The cast is probably the next thing we need to use. I think you should add your signature to it.”

“My signature?” Aiba asked, “I… Do not have one. But I suppose I can give it a try.” Aiba reached for the cast with one hand and, using the same finger as before again, drew a small picture of a hamster. “There. I have signed Date’s cast.”

“Good. That solidifies it as being Date’s,” Kagami said, “Because Boss could have had those three signatures too, but only Date would actually have yours. Now that that’s done, put the cast on the arm. Uh… If you can. I think that’s what we need to do, but now that I’ve said it, it sounds a little weird to ask of you.”

“Things work differently in somnium. If it is what we’re meant to do, then it will simply work.” Aiba leaned over the table and held the cast out to the figure’s right arm. As soon as it made contact, it disappeared from her hand and took up its rightful position on the arm. It even added the sling Date had to wear with it for the first week, for good measure. “See? I do not need to have any expertise in anything, here in somnium. Any layperson can apply a medical immobilizer.”

“Is it just me, or is his hair getting shorter?” Kagami asked.

“It _is_. So it seems we’re on the right track to confirming this figure as ‘Date’, currently. If it is growing to look more like he does at this point in time,” Aiba said, “I just hope that this is the desirable result. Well, no turning back now if it isn’t. Keep it up.”

“I’ll do my best…” Kagami said, “Okay, next up. Put, uh… Put the eyeball version of you that’s on the table, into his ear.”

“I see where you’re going with that one,” Aiba said, and lifted the eye. “I’m holding my own body in the palm of my hand… I never thought that I’d appear in somebody’s somnium. It’s kind of weird. Well, anyway.” She leaned over the table again, this time reaching for the left ear. The second the eye hit the earlobe it too disappeared, only to reappear within his ear as the actual earpiece that Aiba took the form of these days. Along with that change, the figure finished acquiring Date’s haircut, and the clothing… Wobbled for a moment, before shifting as well to something more his style.

“Ah, that really did it, huh?” Kagami said.

“It certainly did. But the lock hasn’t broken just yet,” Aiba said, “There’s still something we have to do, I guess.”

“Why don’t you give Date the key to those handcuffs?” Kagami offered, “It’s the only thing left, anyway.”

“The key… Right.” Aiba reached for the handcuffs and pulled their key out, bobbed it in her hand for a moment, then tossed it over the table to Date. He caught it in the unbroken arm, smiled just slightly, then shattered just like all the images before had. The rest of the scene followed suit, and a lock came undone for the objective ‘Set me free’.

Fourth Objective: Just think of it like a Psync gone wrong.

And Aiba was confronted with the fourth mental lock, at the seventh Psync Machine. This was the one which had cots instead of Psync Chairs. She stood completely still, staring ahead at it. There was a fridge set inside the ring, between the cots. “So this one must be…”

“The crime which just occurred,” Kagami said, “Though, I’m not sure what kind of locks could be deeper than that. These cots are definitely like… The ones I saw in the cold storage warehouse.”

“Cold storage… That must explain the fridge,” Aiba said, “A fridge is also a cold storage warehouse, in a way. Isn’t it? Sejima… Kept reusing that location. It is where he made his first kill, I suppose.”

“I see.” Kagami also sounded markedly more uncomfortable than he had been before. “So he considered… This. Important enough to go back there again.”

“Date and Sejima obviously considered each other archenemies. It isn’t surprising. ‘This’ was probably Sejima’s highest priority now that he was back in his own body.” Aiba shut her eyes. “Please tell me to do something. I don’t want to see these things for any longer than I need to.”

“Open the fridge,” Kagami offered.

“Thank you.” She nodded, then stepped up to the fridge and pulled it open. It was actually stocked quite well- There were too many things present for her to draw any real conclusion. It was a normal fridge. “I’m not sure there’s anything here.”

“The cots are in the place of Psync chairs, right? Maybe we need to put something on each of them,” Kagami said, “From in the fridge. Is there anything unusual in with the food that you can see?”

“No. It’s just normal groceries.”

“I can’t see anything strange either. So it has to be something with the food itself,” Kagami said, “Given… Given the situation that this is related to, there might be something. I’m not completely comfortable saying it, though.”

“However uncomfortable you are by saying something, I will have to be very uncomfortable putting it into action as well,” Aiba said, “This is _Date’s_ somnium. He often speaks the very strange things that are on his mind. It’s only reasonable we might have to do something very strange to explore his mind.”

“I think, maybe…” Kagami still hesitated, but got the words out with a few moments to think. The benefit of time being stopped when not moving afforded him this luxury of composing himself. “You need to put an egg on one of the cots.”

“That _is_ uncomfortable.” Aiba reached into the fridge and pulled out the egg carton.

“It’s nothing compared to what you’ll probably need to do next,” Kagami said, “But… You _are_ the one who warned me things might get rough in here.”

“I did do that, yes. It’s uncomfortable to need to take these actions ourselves, but it still pales in comparison to what this could have been. Though we shouldn’t jinx it, what with there still being two more mental locks.” Aiba set the egg down on the cot, then returned to the fridge. “So the other, worse instruction you have for me?”

“That would be to, er.” Again, Kagami needed a minute to collect himself before giving an instruction like this. “Dispense whipped cream onto the other cot.”

“I did assume it would be something like that.” Aiba retrieved the can of whipped cream from the door of the fridge, shook it once, then approached the cot at the other side of the Psync Machine. “I believe I would be remiss if I simply dispensed this in a pile. While I was unable to tie into his thoughts enough to determine for certain, I highly doubt that he took it silently and without spiteful remarks.”

“I’d doubt that too,” Kagami said, “Especially since he was still, uh, quipping again so soon after we were out of there.”

“There.” Aiba finished up, and smirked to herself just a bit. In the whipped cream, she’d written ‘Was this really worth your last breath, Saito Sejima?’ on the surface of the cot. She had considered the more succint ‘go fuck yourself’, but given the conditions, thought better of it. With everything at play here, ‘fucking oneself’ could have a case made to be what _actually_ happened. As soon as Aiba put the cap back on the whipped cream, this Psync machine dissolved, and another lock was done with. 

Fifth Objective: Survive.

The remaining Psync Machines that had previously stretched out forever were gone now, it was just an empty hallway. There was a loud, rhythmic, thudding noise that seemed to come from all directions. Aiba looked around, and saw nothing with which to interact at all. “We’ve gotten through representations of events which have actually happened… So this must be a more conceptual mental lock. I can’t even see anything to do, though.”

“Is it just me, or is the noise getting louder each time it goes?” Kagami asked.

“Now that you mention it…”

“Whatever’s making the noise is getting closer, even though you’re still standing still,” Kagami said. There was one beat uninterrupted from the noise before he exclaimed in realization, “Aiba! Lie down and pretend to be dead, okay?”

“Pretend to be dead?”

“There’s nothing here to interact with, so it has to be something you can do yourself. Playing dead is my one talent, I think I know when it can be put to good use,” Kagami said, “So could you just do it?”

“Very well. I will… Wait, that’s your talent?” Aiba asked, but did lie down as she did so.

“I’m really skilled at pretending to be dead. Is it really that weird? Anyway, I can give you some pointers,” Kagami said, “Put your limbs at weird angles. I’m a little bit double jointed, so I can do that part really well. If it looks like your bones are broken, it lends credence. Breathe by pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth, mouth closed, and exhaling slowly-”

“These are very interesting tips, Kagami, but I am an AI. I do not need to breathe anyway. And…” Aiba adjusted her position to look a bit more like a corpse, and a puddle of ‘blood’ formed around her. “This causes me no harm. Am I now a convincing enough corpse for you?”

“Yes, now be quiet. Corpses don’t talk,” Kagami said, and Aiba followed the advice. The noise kept getting louder and louder, until a blue, faceless figure appeared in the room. It walked in a circle around Aiba, then kicked her side. She didn’t react at all. It continued staring down at her for a while, then shattered and disappeared. The walls and floor did exactly the same thing, and the opening of a padlock showed as Aiba plummeted down, falling through empty space.

“I guess that worked,” Aiba said, “But now I appear to be falling forever. It isn’t advancing the clock to move _this_ way, at least. Do you have any more intelligent suggestions?”

“There aren’t any items falling along with you, are there?” Kagami asked.

“No, it’s just me and absolutely nothing else,” Aiba said, “You can see the same things as I can, Kagami. If there were anything here, you would know about it.”

“Right… I just figured from your angle, you might have more luck. But if there’s really nothing there. There’s got to be something you can do.”

“I…” Aiba realized, “I don’t think that there is.”

“What?” Kagami asked.

“I don’t think there _is_ something I can do. I think I just need to wait till this is over,” Aiba said, “Because that’s exactly what Date had to do. He had to wait until it was over. He couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything, either. So there’s nothing I can do now. I just need to wait.”

“For how long?” Kagami asked.

“The clock isn’t advancing even a little bit while I fall. So I can wait as long as necessary. If I had to hazard a guess, it would be the exact duration of the assault. I’d say approximately twenty-six minutes passed between when I powered down and when I was placed back into the steering wheel of Date’s car. So _we_ will experience that much time within the dilation of the somnium. I assume.”

“I guess that since it isn’t real time, it’s not an actual loss to just wait it out and see if it works,” Kagami said, “And if it doesn’t, then we can assess other options.”

“Precisely,” Aiba said. Then, they waited, just as she suggested. There wasn’t anything that could be done, falling deeper and deeper through dark, empty space. A despair which had no end necessarily in sight, growing worse with every single moment that passed by, of course. That must have been how it felt, Aiba figured. Descending with no chance of retaliation against misery. Then, suddenly, the fall ended, just the same here as it had there- With a gunshot.

There was a bullet through _Aiba’s own forehead_ , as she finally landed, wind knocked out of her by both the ground against her back and the hole in her head. She took a moment. She _did_ experience sensation, after all, and this one was unpleasant. It didn’t make sense to program her with the ability to feel real, debilitating pain. But discomfort, sure, there was a good amount of that to be had here.

She caught her breath, and sat up. Looked around. This was the Date residence again. He still lived here to this day, since Boss’s home had been blown up and all. He even still slept on the couch despite Mizuki’s non-presence. It wasn’t exactly his home, though, there were certain things wrong with it. Furniture positioned just a little bit wrong, and the fridge was missing altogether. In its place, there was a full length mirror. Conspicuous, since there wasn’t one of those anywhere in the real version of this residence.

Aiba stood and approached it. Reflected in this mirror wasn’t herself at all. It followed her motions, but was not an Aiba. Instead, it was… ‘Date’. The version of him which had existed for five years. In Saito’s body, with his own strange fashion sense, and Aiba there in his left eye socket. It also had the same gunshot wound as was currently in Aiba’s head. “Oh, Date…”

“What do you think this is about?” Kagami asked.

“I don’t have to think, I know.” Aiba turned away from the mirror and crossed her arms. “Date used this body for six years, and I was in it with him for five of those. He doesn’t remember anything from before then. So as much as he understands that is Saito’s body… It _was_ his. He was assaulted, in somebody else’s body, by the body that he used to think was his own. Then he had to see that body die. That’s why this is the deepest lock. He doesn’t want to admit that he still had attachment to that body, even knowing the truth.”

“Anyone would be, though,” Kagami said, “I mean. I… I didn’t have time to think. I should have just brought Sejima in, and-”

“No,” Aiba said, “I’m going to stop you right there. Saito Sejima deserved to die. And with this knowledge, of course Date couldn’t exist in that body again. Especially not _now_. In this body, he sees himself as an intruder who doesn’t belong here, so he tries not to see himself too much. But if he were in that body again… Can you honestly imagine that kind of life? Seeing the face of somebody who raped you every single time you happened to glance at a reflective surface? You’d never be able to escape from that image. So… What I need to do is…”

“Break the mirror,” Kagami finished her sentence for her. “We have to break the association altogether, right?”

“For as long as Date fails to see his current body as his own, he cannot begin to confront the truth.” Aiba drew back and punched the mirror, and through the cracks, she could see words. She read them aloud, continuing through, reading each sentence as it appeared. “ ‘I let this happen to Boss’s body’. ‘She would give me such a chewing out for this’. ‘I let this happen to me’. ‘She would be so worried about me’. ‘She was stupid to care about somebody who would let her down this way’. ‘Stupid to ever give a shit about somebody who lets this happen at all’. ‘There wasn’t anything I could do’. ‘Why did this have to happen to me’.”

Aiba’s voice was cracking more with each statement she read out as she pounded on the mirror, letting its pieces come up and fall to the floor. She leaned against it, breathing heavily. Though she could stop her breath like earlier when she focused on it, the act itself did help her to calm down. Date had taught her that. “This is. We’re getting… Through. He needs to acknowledge that this is something that happened _to him_... Not to Shizue Kuranushi’s body.”

“They do say that the first step to recovery is acknowledging that the traumatic event happened,” Kagami said, “But is it really okay for us to put him through that? Wouldn’t the Psync be able to skip steps of the process, or, something?”

“It’s all that we can do,” Aiba said, and brought both fists against the mirror one more time. The entire thing shattered in the same effect as the earlier portions of the Psync, and a final lock undid itself. The somnium had been resolved, then, and at the heart of it…

Behind the mirror, in an alcove of the wall, was Date. Date as he currently was, right now. Haircut, same outfit, though it had been repaired. There was one end of the injury down his chest visible on his neck, where it wasn’t covered by clothing. Still bleeding slightly. Just as reality. This Date was the real one. Aiba crouched in front of him. “Come on, Date. You understand, right? This is your life now. It’s who you are, and you need to work with that, not against it. You’re Kaname Date. This is your body. You can make it more suitable for yourself without betraying anyone. Nothing you can do is worse than what’s been done to you. But you’ll be okay. I promise, you will. Because...”

Aiba reached out and wrapped her arms around him. “We’re here for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what I do, you can find me @LemonQuails on twitter.


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